New Country, New Look

The babies and I bid adieu to the Sunburned Country last week. We left Nate behind to finish up some things.

We started this blog originally as a way for our family and friends in the US to keep up with us in Australia. Now it will serve as a way for our Australian friends to keep informed of our life in America! Hence the new look. I'll add more relevant gadgets once Nate gets here and we get settled.

Four Months!

Can't forget about the important things...

Murdoch is four months old. He continues to be a delightful baby. We all adore him, even his big sister, who has started to say to him when he cries, "You're okay, Murdoch." aw.

Cuties

Two and a half weeks later

The river has receded, we reentered our house two days after it went under water. Almost everything was damaged by the water and covered in sewage-y mud.

I started some of the photos I took of our destroyed things, but it was making me too sad. If you want to see for yourself, they're online: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunmaid/

The big news is that we're heading back to the great US of A! We decided that if we have to make a fresh start somewhere, why not do it back where we want to live anyway. The decision was not an easy one to make; I'm quite sad about leaving all of my friends and the life we've made for ourselves here.

For the time being, we're living with a friend of mine. She and her husband have a two-story, five bedroom house. The four of us are in one bedroom and we have a little lounge area to ourselves. It's a full house, though. It's the four of us, my pregnant mate and her husband, their toddler, two Chinese exchange students, two beagles and a cat. 

We will be here for 6 weeks (2 weeks down) and so far it's been peachy. Roxy and their daughter Layla get on great, it's fun to live with beagles and we have big family dinners. We're not getting too much sleep at night, but at least we've got beds to sleep in.

The kiddies and I are flying out March 2nd. Nate is sticking around to go on one last collecting trip to Far North Queensland and flies home March 23rd or so. My sister is flying out to help me move all of our stuff and help with the kids on the flight. 

We'll be with my parents in Kingsburg until Nate returns and then we're moving to Albuquerque. Our friends Gavin and Kim are moving there this weekend so Gavin can start a postdoc. Nate will be in the same lab working on manuscripts and looking for jobs until, well, until something comes up, I guess.

Let's finish up with something positive. Here's Murdoch doing his best 747 impression:

He rolls over as soon as he gets put down on his back and starts doing this. 

Here's a short video of Roxy's Australian accent. This is pretty much the only thing that comes out of her mouth these days.

Our house this morning

The river peaked this morning at around 4 am. It peaked at 4.5 meters, which is a meter lower than the highest point during the last big flood in 1974. I took this picture at 6 am. They're estimating the water is receding now at 10 cm/hour (until it starts approaching again with the high tide this afternoon).

Can you make our the top of our carport there on the right? I've added more pictures to the flickr set (http://flickr.com/gp/sunmaid/rB963z).

We're heading up to our friends' parents' house in Redcliffe today. The parents are on holiday and the house is vacant. We'll probably be there until Sunday as we don't really expect to get into the house until then.

Thanks for all your e-mails and well wishes! It means a lot to us and we'll do our best to keep you updated.

low and wet

Pictures from today. We evacuated early this morning and are staying with friends. We took only what we could fit in the trunk of our Ford Laser.

 Our house at 5 am.

Our house at 7 am.

Our house at 9 am.

 Steps leading down to under the house.

The side yard (the wild tomato garden is flooded).

This isn't even the worst of it. The river is supposed to reach its highest tide tomorrow at 4 am (I think). I think they're expecting another meter and a half of water.

A link to the flickr photo site with more pictures from today and yesterday: http://flickr.com/gp/sunmaid/rB963z

low and dry

The floods in Queensland have made international news, prompting some family and friends to ask if we're in harm's way. The answer is no. Not at all.

Queensland is an enormous state. It is about 1.72 million square kilometers (about 715, 000 square miles). That's 25% of Australia's land mass, or 4 times the size of Japan, 6 times the size of the UK and twice as big as Texas.

Brisbane is nestled in the southeast corner of the state. We've gotten a lot of rain this spring and summer, but we are pretty far from any of the flooding of 'biblical' proportions.

Murri Christmas!

Polaroid from our annual trip to visit Murri Claus! (This is our Christmas card, but it won't make it to all of you until the new year...)

Eddie and Lisa's visit

Our good friends Eddie and Lisa stopped in for a looong weekend on their way from Papua New Guinea to the US. They are expecting their first baby this March and are spending the last trimester in the US and will be heading back to PNG sometime after the baby's arrival.

Our weekend was filled with talking, cooking, brunching, yoga-ing, reminiscing, eating and playing/cuddling with babies. Here are some photos from the weekend (I didn't take many).

Eddie is probably Roxy's favorite person in the entire world.

Lisa and Roxy doing child's pose

and cat-cow pose

Fresh oysters, crusty bread and bitter beer. Nate was in heaven.

Eddie sampling the oysters...

Nate sipping on the beer...

Roxy after her first taste of bleu cheese (she really wanted to like it).

correspondence notes

For those of you who received Murdoch's birth announcement...

We went through a printing company in the US and they addressed, stamped and mailed the cards for us, hence the impersonal typed address on the envelope. It was less expensive for us to do it that way and made more sense because most of the recipients are in the US. The only catch was that we had to use an American return address. The Kingsburg address is my parents house.

We're still living large in Australia and an Christmas postcard is on its way with our Australian address.

2 Years

Roxy turned two this weekend! We had her birthday celebration all planned out. What we didn't count on was Roxy waking up with a fever:

Cuddles with Mama after lots of cuddles with Papa. 

She perked up and we continued on with our big celebration! First stop: Boost smoothie shop for a Strawberry Swirl Smoothie in a Supergirl cup:

Look at the focus.

Next stop: South Bank for playing in the water features. Doc and I hung out on the sidelines while she and Nate splashed around in the water for an hour. She did lots of JUMPING and SPLASHING with all of the other kids.

 The view from the sidelines.

She did not want to leave.

After a long nap in her air-conditioned bedroom (we cranked it on for the first time this year), we enjoyed the afternoon thunderstorms and Nate made spaghetti with olives for dinner. It was too hot to bake pizza. We sang Happy Birthday and she blew out the candles in her bowl of strawberry ice cream.

I know it looks like I'm blowing out the candles, but really she did it.

Happy Birthday to our sweet girl! She's getting bigger, smarter, sweeter and funnier every day!  

Two Months

Doc turned two months old on Dec. 1. As much as I've been wishing for the days to slow down so that he doesn't get too big too fast, I'm afraid he just keeps growing. He's gained nearly five pounds and grown nearly 2 inches since he was born. He is such a good, sweet baby.

Momruh's Visit Part 2: Champers, Mulligatawny and Pavlova Send-off

Catching up here with a few more pictures from my mom's visit. She went home nearly three weeks ago, but I'm just now getting time to do this. Who knew life would be so busy with two kids?

I took my mom and Doc on their first visit to Straddie. It was a gorgeous day and the island was full of hippies.

Afternoons were filled with exercise sessions. This is Roxy participating in a P90X workout.

The night before she left, we had Mulligatawny stew, a bottle of champagne and a pavlova topped with whipped cream, strawberries, mango, kiwi and crushed macadamia nuts. Yum! We toasted each other with the cheapest champagne in the bottle shop and enjoyed our feast.

My dad made my mom promise to take Roxy out for ice cream. Here's the proof! Everytime we walk past that ice cream shop in the mall, Roxy climbs up into the chair and asks for ice cream. Thanks Mom!

It was great having my mom here. We spent naptimes chatting, planning meals, chatting some more. Or I slept while she read or was in the backyard on a bindi-killing spree (this bindi, not this Bindi). The drive home from the airport was pretty tough, but we're looking forward to her next visit, which is in just a few months. 

So sweet

This is a moment that makes my mommy heart swoon:

Roxy tucked a some of her afternoon snack (a pretzel) into Doc's hand while he napped.

What I didn't get a picture of was five minutes later when she was adjusting his blanket so that it covered his sleeping face. Such is the brother-sister relationship.

Photos to make my dad wish he was here and Happy Halloween

My mom is in town for a couple of weeks. She's about halfway through her trip and it's been wonderful having her here. We've been trying new recipes from my 30 minute meal cookbooks (have yet to make a meal in 30 minutes or less), we took a trip out to Straddie and she's been spending lots of time with her grandkids. :)

So what's missing? Or should I say: Who is missing? My dad. He decided to stay home this trip, but I bet he's wishing he was here. Especially after he sees these photos:

Nana hiked with Roxy in the backpack at the Koala Reserve! Go Nana!!

Nana meeting Murdoch for the first time.

Me and my bubba. His shirt says, "I love my mummy," but his face says, "Get me outta here!"

Roxy wears overalls just like her granddad G. 

Nana does the dishes after every meal ("It's therapeutic!") and she misses her normal-sized sink.

Wish you were here, G-Man.

Happy Halloween!

Second Anniversary

Today marks two years since we left the homeland for this sunburned country. When we first arrived, I didn't know if I would last six months, let alone two years. But here we are, with no immediate plans to leave, raising our two Aussie babies on the outskirts of Brisbane.

Although she's an American citizen, I think Rox qualifies as an honorary Aussie. She recognizes emus, koalas and wombats in books (but not squirrels), has vegemite on her toast for morning tea, endures nappy changes, sleeps in a cot, and loves going for rides in the pram. Oh, and she enjoys the occasional bikkie as a treat.

I wanted to get a family picture to accompany this post, but I just haven't done it yet. So for now, you'll have to be satisfied with a collage:

 Doc in his grunge onesie.

She thinks she's pretty funny (we think so, too).

Nate on paternity leave.

Me and Doc freshly sprung from hospital.

New Arrival!

We're thrilled to announce the arrival of 

Murdoch Karras 

born on October 1st.

We're beyond thrilled to be a family of four. More to come... Doc is sleeping now, so I'm going to sleep too!

Ready for summer!

Recent Visitors

Just a couple of weeks ago, we got to put our spacious new house (and our water heater) to the test with three people visiting at the same time! My aunt Jean flew in from California for a quick, one-week visit, and our friends from Davis, Tara and Dani, were in town at the same time. 

Jean arrived mid-week and was eager to check out some of the Australian wildlife. We first visited the Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary and got up close and personal with a few grazing wallabies and the recuperating koalas. The next day we decided to check out the Queensland Museum near the city to check out the preserved animals that we probably wouldn't see in the wild. That afternoon, we took a hike around Mt. Gravatt, which is a little forest park just a few minutes' drive from our house.

On Saturday, we left Roxy and Nate at home and drove down to Springbrook National Park. We haven't been there since my sister Becky visited a year ago, and it's just as gorgeous as ever! We did the hike to Natural Arch and then drove over to a new section for a spectacular hike to a few waterfalls.

Natural Bridge

Jean beside a waterfall in Springbrook. Should be a great swimming hole come summertime (it was a bit chilly during this visit).

From the trail behind the same waterfall. Definitely want to see it after a storm.

That night we had delicious pizza in Mt. Tamborine and drove home well after Roxy had gone to sleep. 

Tara and Dani arrived back from Papua New Guinea the next day without their luggage (it was lost on their flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby), but with high spirits! 

Nate went to work and the rest of us crammed into the car and drove up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland for a visit to the Australia Zoo, which should be called The Crocodile Hunter's Theme Park, because Steve Irwin was EVERYWHERE (yet somehow I managed not to get a single picture of him)!

Waiting for the show at the Crocseum.

Dani looking a bit nervous with the 'roo.

Super photogenic Tara seems much more relaxed.

Rox practicing her haka face at our 'roo. Check out the size of my belly! Amazing!

Dani and Tara beneath the display that shows how high a kangaroo can jump - see the feet suspended from the ceiling above them?

I'm not the biggest fan of zoos, but The Australia Zoo isn't too bad. There was an emphasis on conservation, they don't use disposable plates (cookery) or silverware (cutlery) in their Food Court, and they even have a big gift shop that sells wares made by Australians in Australia from Australian materials. But, a zoo is a zoo, and the animals were in cages and pens. They had imported elephants and tigers putting on shows and lines out the door to get a $20 picture taken with a bored carpet python. 

Our next adventure was to North Stradbroke to spend the night and wake up to do some whale watching. During my sister's visit at the same time last year, the whales were jumping out of the ocean like popcorn and I was really hoping that would happen again.

We woke up to a cold and rainy day and because we didn't all fit in our car (4 adults + 1 toddler = not enough seats in the Laser), we had to take the train to bus to ferry to bus to get to the hostel on the island. Not so much fun in pouring down rain.

Our hostel was nice and clean and 3 km from town. We took a cab into town for dinner and settled in back at the hostel for a night of movie viewing (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Jurassic Park - classics!). 

It rained all night, but cleared up when the sun came up. The guy at the front desk warned us that whales don't really like storms and we probably wouldn't see many. Unfortunately, he was right. On the bright side, North Straddie is a gorgeous place to visit and we spent the morning checking out the crashing waves and managed to spot a couple of whales.

Walking into town.

Playing in the puddles and waiting for whales to surface.

Napping on our hike around the island.

Jean and me with the whale-less Pacific in the background.

Back at home: Coloring on a rainy day with Aunt Jean

Jean had to fly home the next day, so Dani and Tara took advantage of some downtime and read those addictive books from the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy. Roxy loved loved loved hanging out with the big girls and nestled herself right in with them on the couch. (I think she was reading a book about colors.)

Get comfy!

Dani and Tara had to leave a couple of days later and we had a great time reminiscing about grad school and catching up on the past 2-3 years. 

Happy to report that our full house is a happy house. Jean was a trooper and slept on the couch cushions for a couple of nights in our empty 3rd (!) bedroom and Tara and Dani shared the futon, even when they didn't have to. Nate's big pot of Mulligatawny Stew was a hit with everyone (although I'm sure my Asian-inspired pumpkin stew would have been just as popular).